SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission successfully launched two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday at 1:17 p.m. EDT. The launch took place from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with the astronauts riding aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft Freedom atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The event was broadcast live on NASA’s YouTube channel and NASA+ streaming platform.
The spacecraft is set to dock autonomously with the ISS’s forward-facing port of the Harmony module on Sunday, September 29, at around 5:30 p.m. The crew consists of NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Originally planned as a four-crew mission, Crew-9 was reduced to two after NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were reassigned. Their seats were reserved for astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded aboard the ISS since June following failures with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Their mission, initially expected to last 8 days, has now stretched to 8 months.
The primary goal of Crew-9 is to ensure the safe return of Williams and Wilmore by February 2025. In addition to this, the mission will support around 200 scientific investigations aboard the ISS. Research topics include studying moisture effects on plants grown in space, understanding blood clotting in microgravity, and examining eyesight changes in astronauts during long-duration missions, NASA reported.
The Crew-9 mission continues the ongoing partnership between NASA, SpaceX, and international partners to maintain operations aboard the ISS while resolving technical challenges that have delayed the Starliner program.